A novel cationic cobalt(III) Schiff base complex: Preparation, crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface analysis, antimicrobial activities and molecular docking.

A novel Co(III) complex, [Co(L)(Imi)]Cl incorporating 2-((3-methoxy-2-oxidobenzylidene)amino)-4-methylphenolate (L), as a dibasic deprotonated Schiff base ligand and imidazole (Imi) was synthesized and fully characterized using physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques including elemental analysis, conductance measurement, FT-IR, UV-Vis and X-ray single crystal diffraction. As the conductivity data showed, the synthesized complex had a 1:1 ionic nature. The structure of the complex was found to be distorted octahedral in which, O/N donor atoms of the Schiff base ligand and N atoms of three imidazole groups were involved. Antimicrobial activity of the Co(III) complex as well as the its parent Schiff base ligand against two Gram-positive bacteria (S. Aureus and M. luteus), two Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli and P. aeruginosa) and a fungus (C. Albicans) was studied. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of [Co(L)(Imi)]Cl was investigated using molecular docking of the complex with GlcN-6-P synthase.